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Growing up, I was a huge fan of dinosaurs, probably to the annoyance of all my friends, family, and classmates. I also happened to love He-Man, who had a major character the Sorceress, who was kind of the lynchpin for the babyface side. And that, friends, is the worst introduction I’ve ever written for a review in this site’s six years.

That shit show of a paragraph aside, it does not take away from “Shattering Light’s Creation,” the intense and bloody debut from Texas-based black metal assault unit Tyrannosorceress. This record is a massive burst of fury, a six track, 45-minute crusher that doesn’t adhere to conventional construct whatsoever. It’s definitely a black metal record, a wicked one at that, but it also is an album that’ll take you out of the brutality-all-the-time mind frame and inject a little imagination and weirdness into the music. The band—vocalist Zac Christian, guitarists Billy Baxter and Daniel Hearne, bassist John Schiller, and drummer Zach Jobin—is made up of 3/5 of the awesome group Cleric, and they deviate into darker, more demented regions than what they do under that banner. This is a killer record, one that should be mentioned in December (or fucking August for some people) when discussing the year’s best black metal releases.

“Haunting Black Infinity” opens the record with strange noises that meet up with gigantic riffs. Gurgly growls and compelling melodies rip through before a vicious, nasty pace takes over and cracks skulls. The guitars shift all over the place, as the vocals become cavernous (and thus, scary as fuck), while the leads glimmer, and the sounds heads into deep space. “In the Light of the Sabbat Moon” has an eerie, clean opening, as moody guitars join the fray, and the track slowly bleeds open. There’s a slow, albeit very heavy, pace, as harsh growls splatter, and the song feels like it’s situated at the heart of a storm. The guitars bend and twist, leaving a sickening feeling, and the guttural growls gnaw at your guts. Then, the drums ignite, the band drives hard, and the song bleeds out with the guitars. “The Call to Chaos” erupts right away, with black metal melting steel, and the tempo bursting and crushing. The leads have a swaggering feel to them, injecting some attitude, while a strange doom curtain drops and changes the setting. The track gets more sinister from there, as riffs cut flesh, and the music sears lives.

The title track is shockingly short at 2:46, but it makes the most of its time as it’s vicious from the start. The track decimates, while the vocals, somewhat washed out, go for death, as the song brings nothing but pain before spilling into “The Angles Nine” that is fluid and massive. The drums start killing, with the vocals sounding gnarly and violent. The song later morphs and feels a little proggy, as things set off steam, and more unsettling melodies settle into the mix. Noises swim in the air, and then everything disappears into time. “Senescent and Supreme” ends the record, an 11:29 cut that takes its time to hit full stride. The music catches fire and starts to glow, but then a ton of lighter fluid is added to the thing. Crushing riffs and clobbering growls strike, as Christian howls, “Chaos fuels the fires!” Well, I kind of just wrote that. Anyway, the music has evil intent, as the music goes on a long boil, adding humidity, before punches and kicks are thrown. The pace kicks, guitars lather (dual playing feels like the classic glory days), as everything burns out and only leaves ash.

Tyrannosorceress have one of the weirdest names in all of metal, but their mission is dead serious. “Shattering Light’s Creation” is a mauling beast that continues to land bloody body blows and doesn’t stop until your life is ready to cease. This album does the first part of its name right, as it feels like a giant monster getting to tear you limb from limb. And they don’t have the disadvantage of those tiny arms!